A noose around the WP’s neck

In the recent saga of the WP’s Organising Secretary revealing that he voted for the PAP, I did a report for The Online Citizen titled, “Political suicide or political maturity?”. I believe that I was fair and balanced in that report, including as many of the comments and responses I received from WP members as space permitted.

Here, I’d like to thank them for taking the time to answer my queries.

What do I personally think of the episode?

I have had the pleasure to work with Shin Leong during the General Elections in 2006. I was part of the supporting team for the WP’s GRC team. Shin Leong is a passionate person. You can see it in his tirelessness during the elections (and outside of the election period as well). The words that come to my mind if asked to describe him would be: honest, sincere and attentive.

He is one of the WP members I know who tries to push for things to happen within the party.

There are two things to consider about the Yaw Shin Leong saga:

1. Why did he vote for the PAP?

2. Why did he reveal it on his blog?

The first question is the harder one for him to explain. Despite saying that his reason was because he voted, in his views, for the better candidate, it does not sit well with opposition supporters – for one reason; he had rallied, urged and perhaps even convinced some Singaporeans to vote against the PAP during the elections.

Thus, the emotional reaction is: How can he then vote for the PAP himself?

There are no explanations which would satisfy anyone who’s upset with him presently.

As for the second question, I understand (rightly or wrongly) that he was prodded or provoked into revealing it. But he could have – and should have – told the “provoker” that he has the right to the secrecy of his vote and wishes not to reveal it.

That would have been the end – and this whole saga would not have happened.

But now that it has, what’s the WP to do?

I do not think they will do anything, actually. It will not surprise me if I hear the WP say it’s time to ‘move on’. Personally, I would have preferred that the party faced this issue head-on and lead the debate into a wider issue, which was brought up by Choong Yong in the interview. That is, lead the discussion into one of ‘responsible voting’, which fits in nicely with the WP’s claim of being a ‘responsible party’.

But alas, it seems that being a ‘responsible party’ means keeping quiet.

Someone asked me if I felt Shin Leong should step down as Organising Secretary. Yes, he should. The party should not sack him because I do not think there are any grounds to do so. But I would think that Shin Leong realizes what his actions have done to the party’s image and reputation.

If he were still the OS come the next elections, and lead a GRC team again, his confession on his blog will be a noose around his head.

And those of ever one of his team mates as well.

No one is above the party.

Right?

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